Date: Thu, 12 Oct 1995 10:28:31 -0400
From: "(No Name)"
Subject: Gay Culture Flourished In Pre-Nazi Germany
Reprinted with permission from Update, Southern California's gay and lesbian
weekly newspaper.
For reprint permission, or to send a letter to the editor, email
gayeditor@aol.com
Gay Culture Flourished In Pre-Nazi Germany
By H. Lucas Ginn
For Update
The horror of minority persecution during the Holocaust is
etched into the mind of modern Western man. The sufferings of
millions of Jews, homosexuals, gypsies, and religious minorities
is painfully recreated in memorials, books, and art work
throughout the world. Images of death and persecution will
certainly be recalled as our community celebrates Gay and
Lesbian History Month. However, it is also necessary to have
some knowledge of pre-Nazi Germany so that the Holocaust can
be better understood and the likelihood of history repeating itself
diminishes.
The German Gay rights movement began in 1896 when a small
circle of Gay male friends and associates began sporadic
publication of the of the journal Der Eigene (Self-Owner). The
journal was a celebration of male art, literature, and
camaraderie. It consisted of articles written by Gay scholars,
erotic photographs, and perhaps most significantly, personal ads
that allowed Gay German men to meet discreetly and network with
one another.
Publishing a homosexual-oriented journal was risky business in
early 20th century Germany. Paragraph 175 of the strict German
penal code made male homosexual sex punishable by a stiff
prison sentence. The police and puritanical citizen groups
wielded Paragraph 175 as a weapon against Gays. Der Eigene and
its publisher Adolf Brand were frequent targets of homophobic
wrath. Brand's home was searched by police on numerous
occasions and Brand served two months in jail for "lascivious
writings." In the face of such persecution, Brand and other
contributors to Der Eigene meekly defended their work by citing
its scientific and artistic value and downplaying its sexual themes.
Despite intimidation from German authorities, Der Eigene
continued to be published. However, the threat of police
harassment probably did take a toll on the fledgling publication;
historians estimate that no more than 1500 men subscribed to Der
Eigene.
Der Eigene was not written as a means of political activism.
Indeed, most of its readers were well-educated men who had
already accepted their homosexuality. The political aspect of the
German Gay rights struggle was taken up by the Scientific
Humanitarian Committee (SHC), founded in 1897. Led by famed
sexologist Magnus Hirschfeld, the SHC had three primary goals:
the abolition of Paragraph 175, educating the public about
homosexuality, and forging interest among homosexuals in the
Gay rights movement. To accomplish its aims, the SCH
sponsored speaking tours and exhibits and donated pro-Gay
publications to libraries. The centerpiece of its activism was the
circulation of a petition calling for the repeal of Paragraph 175 by
the German parliament. Despite gaining the support of
prominent Germans, both Gay and straight, Hirschfeld and other
members of the SHC were ultimately unsuccessful in their
attempts to win a repeal of anti-Gay laws. However, the work of the
SHC was not in vain. Due largely to the efforts of the SHC,
homosexuality became a widespread topic of conversation and
debate in Germany. Gay rights were debated and discussed in the
leading German newspapers and in households throughout the
country. Gay men emerged from the shadows of prejudice and
myth to make their presence known to their straight countrymen.
Both Der Eigene and the SHC worked primarily on behalf of
Gay men. Lesbianism was not proscribed by law and Lesbian
journals and businesses flourished in the Weimar Republic.
Lesbians were invited to join the SHC, but few chose to do so, in
part because of the organization's emphasis on the repeal of male
sodomy laws. Lesbians and Gay men, while sharing the common
bond of homosexuality, led separate lives and struggles.
... there were more Gay bars and
periodicals in 1920 Berlin, the capital of
Gay Germany, than there were in 1980
New York.
World War I was a major turning point in German history.
German participation in the war lasted from 1914 to 1919 and
ended in devastating defeat. Inflation soared. Millions were
unemployed. Poverty stained the cities of a once proud and
militant nation. The devastation of the war caused the German
people to reexamine their national values, including sexual
values. Greater tolerance emerged for sexual variations and
expression and it was during the 1920s that mainstream Gay life
came out of the closet, out of the shadows of fear. No longer was
Gay society limited to the intellectual elite. Gay bars and clubs
opened in major German cities, creating coherent Gay
neighborhoods. The numbers of Gay male periodicals soared.
Historian Frank Rector estimates that there were more Gay bars
and periodicals in 1920 Berlin, the capital of Gay Germany, than
there were in 1980 New York. The infamous Paragraph 175
remained in the penal code, but many police were reluctant to
enforce it in the larger cities.
The success and openness of German Gays during the 1920s
ultimately hurt them. The Berlin that was synonymous with Gay
culture was the same city that was synonymous with government
corruption and ineptitude. The German people began to look for
scapegoats for the ills that had befallen their nation. The Jews and
Gays of Berlin were easy targets.
Gay men and Lesbians suffered under the same poverty and
hardship that their straight compatriots faced. Like many
Germans, Gays and Lesbians were attracted to promises of wealth
and a restoration of national prestige offered by a rising political
force N the Nationalist Socialists or Nazis. The Nazi glorification
of manhood was reminiscent of the pages of Der Eigene and other
respected Gay publications. Many Gay men joined the ranks of
the Nazi party in a spirit of patriotic duty. In doing so, they
attracted the attention of the party's leader, Gay-hater Adolf
Hitler.
Hitler relied upon stereotype and the opinions of Gays
themselves to justify his discrimination against homosexuals. He
viewed Gay men as effeminate and weak, a direct contradiction to
the masculine ideal to which many, if not most, German Gays
aspired. He used the writings of Magnus Hirschfeld to back his
contention that homosexuals, both men and women, are freaks of
nature. Hirschfeld, desperate to find an explanation for
homosexuality that would ease prejudice, originally believed that
Gays were a third biological sex. He backed away from that
contention in 1910. After gaining political power, Hitler ordered
a renewed enforcement of Paragraph 175 and began a purge of
homosexuals within the Nazi ranks.
In 1933, an anti-pornography law was used to shut down Gay-
friendly publications. All Gay bars, bath houses, hotels, and
cafes frequented by homosexuals were shut down by police under
government order. In May, Hirschfeld's Institute of Sexual
Science was ransacked and the archives and books within it were
publicly burned. The terror had begun. The movement which
had shown so much promise and progress was squelched by the
Nazis. Gay men and Lesbians were viciously forced back into the
closet and those who dared live openly or maintain their Gay
contacts were rounded up and sent to the concentration camps
for imprisonment and extermination.
It is startling how quickly a promising and vibrant sexual
revolution was crushed. Homosexuals, who had been on the cusp
of sexual freedom and openness, were forced back into the
shadows of fear and secrecy by Hitler's consolidation of power.
Many Gays failed to realize until it was too late that under the
promises of a restoration of national glory lurked tyranny and
bigotry.
For Further Reading
Lauritsen, John and Thorstad, David. The Early Homosexual
Rights Movement. New York: Times Change Press, 1974.
Oosterhuis, Harry (ed.). Homosexuality and Male Bonding
in Pre-Nazi Germany. New York: Harrington Park Press, 1991.
Plant, Richard. The Pink Triangle. New York: Henry Holt and
Co., 1986.
Rector, Frank. The Nazi Extermination of Homosexuals. New
York: Stein and Day, 1981.